[Foundation-l] Fundraising season launch

Tue Oct 10 19:26:46 UTC 2006

On 10/9/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> As an individual (not board member), I would like to ask if it were
> possible that the spin around the fundraising, focuses a bit on the
> other projects, perhaps the notion of virtual library, with the
> wikicommons and wikisource. We have the recent report of the german
> digitization to show up as an example as how we could push things
> forward in realm of digital libraries.

Yes, it seems absolutely essential to me that the communication
strategy is carefully planned _before_ we ask for money.

What have the Foundation and the Chapters accomplished so far? What is
the status of our work to bring Wikimedia to developing countries?
What have our expenses been? (Get audited financial reports out.) What
expenses do we foresee? What strategic projects are around the corner?
What is the state of the projects besides Wikipedia, the small
languages?

The last thing I want is another "WE NEED MORE SERVERS" fundraiser.

So, in order to do this properly:

Brad - can we assume that the financial statements will be published
before Nov 1? Can you work on outlining some expenses over the next 6
months you see as critical, in broad terms (staff, hardware, etc.)?

Tim - when are the static dumps going to be ready?

Samuel - can you pass on some promotional materials re: the OLPC
partnership to the Fundraising Committee?

Delphine - can you compile a report on chapter activity (max 10K,
pictures would be nice)? What projects were completed, what chapters
were set up?

Jimmy, Florence - shall we prepare a detailed vision statement on
Board Wiki? I volunteer to take a first stab at the structure.

Sabine - could you write a little report regarding translation
projects, and future activities you can envision in this area?

I would suggest early November as a launch of the fundraising drive. I
would like to see some new functionality implemented for this
fundraising drive as well, e.g. the ability to donate directly from
any Wikimedia project page, as well as a more prominent display of
donor comments above a certain amount.

Most importantly, however, I want us to start working very soon on a
decent appeal for support and report of activity so far. I understand
that donor attention is limited, so we need to have a very short
general appeal, but those who care should be able to find detailed
information about what we are doing and why we need support.

Ideally, the information we compile here should be useful to approach
organizations and wealthy individuals, beyond just a general appeal to
the masses.

Does that sound reasonable? :-)
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

Member, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions expressed
in this message are solely my own and do not represent an official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.